Gayle McLaughlin

Team Richmond (me, Jovanka Beckles and Eduardo Martinez) won the 4-year City Council seats.

In addition, Tom Butt won the Mayor's seat and Jael Myrick won the 2-year City Council seat.

A profound thank you to the hundreds of Team Richmond volunteers for your hard work and dedication. Together we overcame 3 million dollars plus of corporate money!

My heartfelt appreciation to the Richmond voters who made it clear that our democracy cannot be bought!

This historic election marks the culmination of a decade of hard work by so many in our grassroots movement. At a time when our nation's democracy is in peril due to the outsized influence of corporate money, grassroots democracy has prevailed in Richmond. What an awesome accomplishment we have achieved together!

Jovanka Beckles

Greetings good people,

As I've been saying for a long time: there is so much good going on in Richmond! Tuesday's election victory is yet another good thing to add to Richmond's pride and purpose.

Tuesday's victory is a victory for the people of Richmond in a big way. Truth and integrity prevailed. Team Richmond (Gayle McLaughlin, Eduardo Martinez and I) won the 4-year City Council seats. Tom Butt won the seat for Mayor and Jael Myrick won the 2-year City Council seat.

We were faced with more than a $3 million dollar war chest that Chevron had at its disposal and utilized to defeat the people of Richmond, but it did not succeed in buying our election and our government. The people of Richmond mobilized and united to defeat a giant of a corporation, sending a loud message that our government is not for sale!

I send you my sincere appreciation and deep gratitude for all the ways so many of you showed up and dedicated time energy and resources to help bring about this victory. Thank you for your donations. Thank you for volunteering by walking precincts, phone banking and reaching out through social media. Thank you for organizing precincts, using your artistic talents to fix vandalized signs, helping to create mailers and billboards and greeting voters at the poll. Thank you for all that I am aware that you did as well as that of which I am unaware. There was simply so much happening by so many of you so much of the time! It was our united effort that helped defeat $3 million dollars of false ads and propaganda. Together, as with our efforts during WWII, we did it!

I am incredibly proud and honored to be part of our ongoing transformation in Richmond. I am so proud of Richmond!

Eduardo Martinez

At the beginning I was overwhelmed by the massive onslaught of misinformation that Chevron money bought. Not only was my mailbox crammed with glossy flyers, but my phone rang with push-pull surveys, my internet was peppered with ads, our city was covered with billboards and bus stop signs, all designed to promote the Chevron candidates and to make Team Richmond look like cartoon villains. Moving Forward with their multi-million budget had a voice louder and more invasive than any individual could ever muster, but the people of Richmond refused to be shouted out.

When Bernie Sanders came to Richmond, he wanted to see grassroots action at work. He said, "The real challenge for progressives in the coming days, months, and years is to build a powerful grassroots movement that is able to break the stranglehold that big money and corporate interests have placed on the nation's democratic insitutions." Today in Richmond we see the fruits of the grassroots action that Bernie was looking for, thanks to all of you who are part of Team Richmond.

I consider each and every one of you who participated in this process of democracy that led to our resounding win as a fellow teammate, and I thank you for joining us in this historic victory. Without your help Citizens United would have triumphed over the will of the people. Instead, the canvassing, phone banking, fundraising, organizing and all the other aspects of running a campaign beat the multi-million dollar blitz launched by Chevron via Moving Forward and their many re-creations of various PACs. We have shown the world that grassroots organizing can trump the power of money. Now we must prove to the world that this movement is sustainable, that we can and will continue to move our city in a direction that reflects our shared commitment to economic, environmental, and social justice.

Since the election, I have had the honor to celebrate the official opening of Harbor-8 Park and to participate in the "Magnifying Richmond's Voice, Where Do We Go From Here?" workshop. As your future council member, I will continue to serve as the involved community member I have always been. I hope to continue to show my appreciation through my service during my term on the Richmond City Council. Thanks to all of you again and again!